KDE in 5 years

[Andrei Sebastian Cîmpean]

Hello everybody at K16,

I am an aspiring software engineer and a KDE user for almost 3 years. I don't 
always have time do the fun stuff that comes for enthusiasts of open-source 
software or to get involved in the community as much as I'd love to, but I 
managed to keep using KDE for school and work and I am quite proud of that. 
Being a student takes on a lot of time and so does a job. Where I work now, we 
build websites and web apps, not the most interesting thing out there, but 
both developers, a colleague and I, are using KDE with OpenSuse as our work 
environment and it's working great so far.
I noticed that there is a smaller number of KDE and Linux news surfacing the 
streams. I also think it's because of the hype surrounding smart-phones and 
the bubble with cloud-computing, something that will peak around next year, in 
my opinion, and then gradually dim down.
Where does KDE fit in this? Well, I think we should start by admitting that 
the desktop market is a sick one. It doesn't matter that your computer is 
secure, runs fast and you can make it do what ever you want. People are 
ignorant towards most of the features that come packed with an OS, they just 
want to check some photos out and listen to music, with a very small amount of 
care as to what OS delivers those simple tasks.
I see that KDE could grow a lot if it could manage to become the OS of choice 
for developers, like for example Apple succeeded in doing for designers with 
confident ads and by just wielding an attitude that says: “I don't care what 
you think, we are the best at this”.
I am going to put more efforts towards where KDE could fit in the web mania 
more, because I haven't worked for money and on a deadline in other areas. I 
also hope this is close to the topic of this initiative, I am not the best 
with words, but I do have an opinion about something I grew to love.
It's all about the apps, and we have available some really great ones, hidden 
gems that we should push forward. For example, I use KDevelop at work for PHP 
and the whole web languages part. I discovered how well it work by pure 
chance. I know there are vim gurus and emacs lovers that will preach against 
IDE's but I'd recommend this program to every deadline pressured 
student/programmer that I'd come across. Although it still needs some small 
basic features it's almost mature.
If we could package this great experience, independent from the other features 
I think we could get more web developers to work with KDE.
The big problem is that Linux and all-related generate the impression that you 
have to be a guru to get stuff done, to know bash and C and n*terminal 
commands to actually be able to use it, and that's false. If we can separate 
all the development areas into small but well oriented “brands” I think we can 
win. It doesn't have to change from the inside, for most cases having 
somewhere on the website a place where web developers can see what KDE has to 
offer for them is enough. Maybe throw in some images, video clips, projects to 
make it feel alive in order to get newcomers. Maybe add to Konqueror some 
feature to view pages as in IE, or other very specific gifts for programmers.
The same could be done for Python developers, C++/C, maybe even ObjectiveC, if 
could ever get that running great.
Also, actually showing how people who work on/with KDE do it in a series of 
videos could be like a holy grail for this on the short run.
This could all be done until the first trimester of 2011. It would be a nice, 
somewhat geeky hype growing around KDE.
This is how I'd like to see KDE in a few months.
How I see it evolve in 5 years? Scary to think of it actually. I saw enormous 
leaps in the last 3, I hope I see at least one in the next 5. Acknowledgment 
is my wish for KDE. In 5 years, KDE could be big in the desktop market for 
developers. Developers would take home work. Developers are well paid and in 
constant demand so this could only get bigger. Some of them might actually 
become rock star equivalents and if KDE would help them to get there, KDE 
would also win.
And besides this, there is the chance of actually getting some advancement in 
the mobile market, and that is also nice.
I still find it awesome that the same environment where I work can deliver 
content on a mobile platform. I have faith that with a bit of luck and some 
marketing guru waiting to prove something we could really show the world that 
KDE is the best at what it does, and most of the times, at some things it 
shouldn't do.
I hope this wasn't too off topic and wish you all a nice new year, filled with 
many new things to discover.

Andrei Sebastian Cîmpean
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 198 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part.
Url : http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/k16/attachments/20101230/13635072/attachment-0001.sig